Societal Smog

By Anonymous, San Diego, CA

Image Credit: Steve S., Marblehead, MA

The author's comments:

Often times, teachers dictate the difference between right and wrong in the classroom. I feel that literature is a creative vent that does not have a clear distinction between the two, because poetry itself is an extension of our voices. It would be equivalent to saying that someone talks better than others. Every person has a voice in literature, and even personally in general. In a more universal sense, the media seems to assume the role of a teacher while the public takes on the students. If the media decides what is right and wrong, free speech and innovative ideas would die out, given it is not sensible by the media. This poem was written to tell other teenagers to think for themselves when writing poetry; it's their voice, not their teacher's.

Societal smog is making us blind Killing our minds, leaning inclined To those with prose to describe a rose Learn what he knows, none to oppose Or a poem to show them what home is; For “home” is deception, Home is what we believe To be normal, average, ordinary. Homebodies such as we cannot See the alternative to words, Words split into thirds to curb The absurd blurbs of rhythm. This is all we see. Yes, we are blind in not taking The time to unwind these fine Lines that bind the rhymes, And as we believe we perceive What the poet conceives, We are thieved by the certain Doom he or she leaves behind. As we mumble about the letters Stumbling among their Humble neighbors, beaten In the “carefully placed” Rumble that maps the selection To these recurring words, We forget how Harry met Sally, Symphony No. 5 Finale, The location of Death Valley. Instead, we yearn to be fed, Unwed to dead knowledge. So remember to find truth That even the uncouth May sleuth, We are writers. We are our voices. We are gifted.